“For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” // Luke 13:30
I don’t know when it began, but there was a time when so many of us started to look at our lives like a timeline where we hoped we could check off certain boxes by certain dates. Discerning a career. Getting a job. Then getting married and having a family. So much striving—and for good and beautiful things—but it can be exhausting. And I think a large part of that is because you can all too easily feel behind on the timeline when it doesn’t look like what you had hoped. Or when it looks differently than those of your peers.
But you’re not the only one who feels like that, and I hope that in time you’ll be able to see that God’s timeline for you is good and worth trusting and pursuing.
His timeline may be confusing at times, but one of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard and like to re-share is to look at all things through the lens of eternity. Eternity has a way of sorting out what really matters and giving consolation in times of disappointment and loss.
Saint Claire of Assisi wrote something similar in one of her letters. She said, “Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance and through contemplation, transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead itself.” (source)
Your vocation and your prayers matter so much to God. He’s using each day to bring you further into the fulfillment of His plan for you. The timeline may not easily add up, and the things you hoped may not happen at the times you would have liked, but trust in the Lord Who fed the five thousand with a few loaves of bread and fish. Trust in the Lord’s timeline, which is based on the logic of today’s Gospel, which says, “[S]ome are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:30). What matters is seeking and following Him.
Annie Deddens is a writer and producer. She runs a prayer ministry with her husband, called Pray More Novenas. She has a heart for the sick & suffering, and she writes about living with greater faith (hope & love, too) in this imperfect world as a Catholic wife on her blog, Catholic Wife, Catholic Life. Find out more about her here.
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